At the present time, there are many infant warmers in use for the treatment and maintenance of ultra-low-birth-weight babies (i.e. infants of extremely low birth weight). Such infant warmers typically include an overhead infrared heater which is the source of warmth for an infant placed in the warmer and having the major portion of its body exposed for clinical purposes. So exposed, the infant can suffer insensible water loss during prescribed therapy which is caused by exposure of the infant to the infrared heater.
It is common practice for the clinician to place a thin-sheet plastic material over the exposed surfaces of the infant to minimize insensible water loss. This material is PVC which has a relatively high plasticizer content introduced in the formulation of the PVC material. The plasticizer causes the PVC material to adhere to itself and other materials or surfaces such as human skin.
As such, the PVC material, while inhibiting insensible water loss, can tear or disassociate regions of the skin of the infant to which it has adhered. It is known that infants which require treatment in an infant warmer have regions of embryonic dermal membrane which can be displaced relatively easily. Thus, use of thin-sheet PVC material, while solving one problem, can be the source of another problem. In addition, because of the adhesive nature of PVC material, microbiological organisms can adhere to the surfaces of the thin-sheet PVC material or grow on these surfaces.